soren7550:Other than the 'people expect banks/insurance companies/etc. to suck', a large part of why EA rockets to the top is because it's a global distributor that makes a unique product you can't get anywhere else. You want a shirt but don't like Wal*Mart? Go to Target, go to Mandee's, go to a local clothes store, buy one off the internet, you have a lot of other options besides Wal*Mart. Want to bank but hate Bank of America? There's Chase, TD Bank, Citi Bank, and a whole lot more. Want to fuel up your car but find BP too shady? You've got Shell, Hess, Texaco, and etc. Want to get Dead Space but hate EA? Tough shit, it's EA or no Dead Space for you.

Thank you for pointing this out after people whining (^-^) about how bad Bank of America is I can't help but think why not switch banks or not use them in the 1st place, there are other banks. I don't have experience with BoA (being from the UK), HOWEVER I was with a bank that I found I liked the practices of less and less, you know what I did I switched to a different bank. If I don't like BP, I can use Shell. however If I want to play simcity there isn't an EA version, Blizzard version, CD Projekt version etc. etc. There is only EA's Simcity, which means I boycott EA's products and since they are taking this poll so seriously then why shouldn't we vote for them to send a message they will pay attention to, it will be enlightening to hear their response.

Okay, I'll say Atlus. They're pretty good. I won't say perfection, as that is a logical impossibility, but we generally don't hear much rage on them. Anyway, that wasn't the point of my post here, so...

OT: Okay, finally read everything.

Man, we're actually arguing over this? Okay, lemme lay it on the line here. Aside from it being all in good fun, because the consequences basically equate to a pie in the face, there is a good reason why EA won:

They're idiots.

Not just any idiots, mind you. They're the kind of morons who end up being just the thing Scott Adams makes comics about, an affably-evil company that cares not, wants everything, and has no means of making real headway because it's 62 flavors of DUH. Now, why might this outrank a properly evil corp? Well, if you'll push away what you think is the bias, there is actually a bit in here that makes sense. Evil, insofar as corporations go, is effective. It's shit, it's terrible, but it goes along its way in a manner of 'screw you' that they can laugh all the way to the bank about and keep it up in ways that will fool millions. It's devious, but it's also functional. By comparison, consider a group which is labeled as 'pretty damn stupid', evil or not. Imagine that they tread lots of water just to stand still and damage people in the process too.

To be a greater level of horrible, it's not JUST in how you treat your consumers. It's also being dumb enough to be caught in your own blast, to damage yourself in the process. When you kneecap someone, they're kneecapped, end of story. EA points a shotgun at its own face, blows its head off, and scatters both shot and bits of head all over everyone behind them. Get it? Collateral damage. A match in an explosives warehouse while trying to shoot someone. A 16-ton weight on top of a chisel meant to crack a rock in half. A crowd of panicking people trampling others while running away from Godzilla.

Now uhhh...this was still all just an internet thing, but don't tell me it doesn't make a lick of sense. The forces of evil have got nothing on a company of idiots, people you can't predict or stop from hurting themselves and everyone else. That's the trick people are missing here. It's not ABOUT the evil. It's about making Darwin cry.

My belief IS based on experience, EA have shown time and time again that they'll say anything or do anything for money and they have no integrity at all. EA only claims to support gay rights to play off poor guillible saps like you who think they're being liberal or progressive in guzzling down corporate soundbites without critically analyzing the intentions behind it. If you honestly think EA care about gay people at all you are extremely naive as to how the world works.

Also this notion that EA's homosexual romances are cutting edge is hilarious, they're backwards we've had gay characters since the 90's and they where considerably better written, EA's attempts to be progressive are almost patronizingly bad.

soren7550:Other than the 'people expect banks/insurance companies/etc. to suck', a large part of why EA rockets to the top is because it's a global distributor that makes a unique product you can't get anywhere else. You want a shirt but don't like Wal*Mart? Go to Target, go to Mandee's, go to a local clothes store, buy one off the internet, you have a lot of other options besides Wal*Mart. Want to bank but hate Bank of America? There's Chase, TD Bank, Citi Bank, and a whole lot more. Want to fuel up your car but find BP too shady? You've got Shell, Hess, Texaco, and etc. Want to get Dead Space but hate EA? Tough shit, it's EA or no Dead Space for you.

3)EA, in a way, runs a monopoly. On a large scale, yes you can just buy another game from another company, much like going to the supermarket a little bit farther than you. But on the smaller scale, every video game is different. It would be like trying to buy oranges but only one store in your area sells them and will only accept $20 per orange. Outrageous, you would say. But don't worry, you can buy apples, bananas, and any other fruit at the store across from your house, someone tells you. You would think they were a bit dim-witted, wouldn't you? Sure, you can live the rest of your life without oranges, they're not necessary, but should you even have to consider that as an option? this is what EA has done with Origin. It's not a monopoly, because most people only go as far as to see "fruit," but nothing more particular than that.

If you dislike Bank of America so much, you can switch to a different bank and receive all of the same benefits. If you want to play Mass Effect 3, You MUST choose EA.

And it's Apple or no iDeviceAnd it's Hummer (company) or no Hummer (car)

No two companies out there make the exact same product. That's sort of how the system works.

If you don't want to buy an iDevice because you hate Apple, you buy a Samsung phone or some competing device that has roughly the same capabilities.

If you don't want to buy a Hummer because you hate the company of the same name, you buy a (from?) Land Rover or Toyota or some other car/company that also makes cars like that.

If you don't want to buy Dead Space because you hate EA, you buy one of the many other "Kill Bio-Horrors FPS" games

And as for the poll itself, this was only the logical progression from "GAMES THAT I CAN'T RUN[1] = THEY CAME FOR THE JEWS HITLER HITLER HITLAAARR!!!"

[1] but probably bought anyway (despite knowing full well that I'd probably be unable to run it.)

You'd EXPECT a giant bank to do evil and screw people over. It is what banks do.

EA is an entertainment vendor. They are supposed to (for a fee) spread joyful happiness into your life with video games. The betrayal is more personal when the happiness vendor kicks you in the nuts with its business practices.

One can argue that the other companies won't care for the "award". One can argue that it's because we expect different things. You can say all those things and it still won't change the fact that people chose a company that sometimes delivers good games, sometimes bad and has an overall bad PR department/company policy over companies that literally RUIN the lives of other people.

In other words, people voted that their "entertainment" is more important than the livelihood and the general well-being of millions.

This is a sad, sad story. EA is "evil" yes. As in, they don't make games the way we would like to have them. Compare that to a Bank screwing over millions of regular people and not being concerned about consequences in the slightest, ruining lives, hopes and dreams left and right.

Doesn't stop people buying millions of EA's games every year though. I guess helping to destroy the economy and being the cause of a huge number of people's evictions and unemployment just isn't as much of a sin as an ending that doesn't wrap up a series as well as people hoped or releasing a game with too much DRM.

NKRevan:In other words, people voted that their "entertainment" is more important than the livelihood and the general well-being of millions.

It's a golden poo award. I think the well-being of millions will be left wholly unaffected by it.

That doesn't change the idea behind it. The idea that just because "oh well, this poll won't do any good anyway, so I'll just vote for something else" makes the whole thing a farce.

So you could say, all of this is just a joke anyway, in which case it doesn't matter one way or the other. Or, if you're jaded like me, you believe that people ACTUALLY care more about their video-games than they do about other, much more "sinister" things.

I mean, ultimately they're just a money grubbing entertainment company with bad customer policy and a ton of titles under their control. Subpar, stupid, lying, and not worth supporting, sure. But worst company in America? I wouldn't even put them in the bottom 100. Walmart, every company involved in faulty weight loss pills, the entire alternative medicine/homeopathy industry, every conman/bait-and-switch/pyramid style company, copyright troll companies, and so many more are all much worse.

And the consumerist's article is pathetic. The majority of its arguments are based simply on the failure of Simcity 5. While it was a trainwreck, a single bad game hardly compares to the other crap companies pull.

I can't agree with this. It's just a gaming company, so how can it be worse than a bank (any bank)? EA puts something on the market which you either buy, or you don't. They don't have a monopoly on games so just ignore them. They are actually useful because every little shit they take gets so much publicity nowadays that every other game company takes notice and say "so that's what NOT to do...". EA is so easy to get rid off, it's laughable. Just don't buy the next FIFA (meaning, just don't upgrade that bloody team roster for ONE year) and Battlefield (cool graphics, but it's the same game, duh) and they will fall. That's it... no more. One FIFA update and a few less polygons for your current Battlefield.

Americans should really start to sort out their priorities. Games aren't one...

My belief IS based on experience, EA have shown time and time again that they'll say anything or do anything for money and they have no integrity at all. EA only claims to support gay rights to play off poor guillible saps like you who think they're being liberal or progressive in guzzling down corporate soundbites without critically analyzing the intentions behind it. If you honestly think EA care about gay people at all you are extremely naive as to how the world works.

Also this notion that EA's homosexual romances are cutting edge is hilarious, they're backwards we've had gay characters since the 90's and they where considerably better written, EA's attempts to be progressive are almost patronizingly bad.

Naive? Dude you're the person who thinks they know what people's intentions are without actual evidence. I on the other hand don't claim to know their intentions, I simply state the fact that they're publicly opposing a law. And further that no other companies are doing that. So I give them credit for that. I don't care what their intentions are, the fact that they've put their name into the public eye is relevant in and of itself.

The fact that they have gay stories in their games is equally relevant and important. When's the last time Valve had a gay relationship in one of their games? Never.

I value actions. When one company is taking action, and others are not, it's puts them above the others. When one company has certain content in their games, and others do not, it puts them above those companies. I don't claim to know their intentions or motivations because to do so is the height of arrogance. I can speculate sure, I can make guesses, but to claim that I know for a fact what they're thinking? That's just absurd and childish.

Why the hell would Activision want to attract the kind of negative press this is generating. Granted Activision is just as guilty as EA in alot of same dickish moves, they seem more than happy to let EA be the spokesman for it at the moment.

Bobby and his fellow executives are probably just pissing themselves laughing about EA being double poo'd especially after all of EA's bluster in trying to catch up/one up them (ie MoH:Warfighter vs CoD)

Hey, here's a ca-raaaaaaaaaaaazy idea, but um, why don't you just not buy EA games? I haven't bought an EA game in a long time. As such I still haven't played Mass Effect or Battlefield or Crysis, and yet I'm still happily gaming along. Yea, I've missed out on some games worth playing, but EA also doesn't have my money. And if you absolutely must play an EA game, why not buy used, to ensure they still don't get your money? I'm not even trying, and I'm avoiding EA pretty well.

Buying used for the most part only works on console versions. PC users have been stuck with whatever they bought for at least 15 years or so. As much as I love Valve/Steam, they were the final nail in the used PC game market once you had to register your game to a service and a username.

NKRevan:In other words, people voted that their "entertainment" is more important than the livelihood and the general well-being of millions.

It's a golden poo award. I think the well-being of millions will be left wholly unaffected by it.

That doesn't change the idea behind it. The idea that just because "oh well, this poll won't do any good anyway, so I'll just vote for something else" makes the whole thing a farce.

So you could say, all of this is just a joke anyway, in which case it doesn't matter one way or the other. Or, if you're jaded like me, you believe that people ACTUALLY care more about their video-games than they do about other, much more "sinister" things.

So tell me this. Let's assume that one of these awful, nefarious corporations really did win the golden poo instead EA. What would that have shown? Would any of those other companies have done had they won the award? Would they behave like BoA did when it won the award (not giving a shit), or act like EA (who just ends up hiding behind half-baked apologies blaming everything else but them)? Would the world continue to spin as it does, or where there be an outcry for change? Would the golden poo do more than all of the other suits and fines that have been levied against companies like BoA or BP? Are you really losing your mind over what amounts to nothing more than a big middle finger voted on by people dissatisfied by EA?

Brother, this has nothing to do with being jaded: stop sounding as if some terrible wrong has been done and realize that you're upset that EA instead of some other company has won a statue in the form of a shit.

Plus the homosexual relationships in DA and ME where nothing more than a marketing ploy, they had no depth at all and they seemed to fall on that old trope of gay guys want to fuck any man simply because they are man, I'd almost find it offensive if it wasn't so laughably sad and desperate.

If you want a good portrayal of Homosexuality in an RPG play New Vegas

Hey, are you queer? Otherwise I don't think you should be speaking *for* queer people about what they should and shouldn't like.

EA is collectively a dick, seeing that they publish a game actually makes me hesitant to buy it, and I've actually decided against purchases just because of their crappy behaviour.

But they don't even make the top ten worst companies. Even a steaming pile of assholes like EA pales before the finance companies that brought on the bubble and recession that followed, the petro-corps that take reckless risks with ecosystes and human health, retailers that knowingly support death-trap manufacturing overseas (Hell of a body count on Wal-Mart's clothing department) or privatized prison and military companies that reap their profits from suffering and death.

Hell, what about Monsanto? Even EA's fairly frequent brick-stupid decisions pale in the face of the psychotic bullshit that company's pulled.

It's a golden poo award. I think the well-being of millions will be left wholly unaffected by it.

That doesn't change the idea behind it. The idea that just because "oh well, this poll won't do any good anyway, so I'll just vote for something else" makes the whole thing a farce.

So you could say, all of this is just a joke anyway, in which case it doesn't matter one way or the other. Or, if you're jaded like me, you believe that people ACTUALLY care more about their video-games than they do about other, much more "sinister" things.

So tell me this. Let's assume that one of these awful, nefarious corporations really did win the golden poo instead EA. What would that have shown? Would any of those other companies have done had they won the award? Would they behave like BoA did when it won the award (not giving a shit), or act like EA (who just ends up hiding behind half-baked apologies blaming everything else but them)? Would the world continue to spin as it does, or where there be an outcry for change? Would the golden poo do more than all of the other suits and fines that have been levied against companies like BoA or BP? Are you really losing your mind over what amounts to nothing more than a big middle finger voted on by people dissatisfied by EA?

Brother, this has nothing to do with being jaded: stop sounding as if some terrible wrong has been done and realize that you're upset that EA instead of some other company has won a statue in the form of a shit.

Sorry. I am really not upset about that. ;)

I am not losing my mind. I just find it very sad. It ties together with other community behaviors that just boggle my mind. All I was saying is that it is, in my opinion, a very weird sense of priorities when, in a poll such as this, you decide to go against the company that is the "least" of the presented evils. I was wondering WHY people would do this?

And like I said, if it is just because of the belief that it doesn't matter at all, then it still shows where priorities lie.

I honestly couldn't care less that EA won the award. Or any other company for that matter, because personally, I think that the people who voted for them in this poll have an absolutely twisted logic/set of priorities and their opinion really isn't that important in the first place.

But that's my personal opinion. Maybe, who knows, EA will actually take something away from this, other than "oh, look, the mob is at it again", who knows. XD

Plus the homosexual relationships in DA and ME where nothing more than a marketing ploy, they had no depth at all and they seemed to fall on that old trope of gay guys want to fuck any man simply because they are man, I'd almost find it offensive if it wasn't so laughably sad and desperate.

If you want a good portrayal of Homosexuality in an RPG play New Vegas

Hey, are you queer? Otherwise I don't think you should be speaking *for* queer people about what they should and shouldn't like.

A)I am gayB)Gay people aren't a collective hive mind, we want different things.C)I doubt many Gay people do like EA's portrayal of homosexuality.

NKRevan:Or any other company for that matter, because personally, I think that the people who voted for them in this poll have an absolutely twisted logic/set of priorities and their opinion really isn't that important in the first place.

For some that might be true, but EA seems to be the only company on the whole list who seems to even care about it. Plus, considering how immediate PR affects a company like them, as opposed to some of the other ones on that list, on top of the hot streak of blunders that EA is on, it makes sense why they're such an easy target.

In the end, the worst thing that could happen is that EA, like BoA, ignores the award and chugs along their path towards PR ruin.

Remember back in the heady days of 07-08 when Ubisoft and Activision were the scourge of mankind and evil incarnate and EA could do no wrong after releasing Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origin? Good times folks... good times. Oh, oh, or remember when Steam was the harbinger of corporate spyware, with Valve being a bloodsucking thief of your hardware information and could possibly flat out steal your CC information?

See, some of us remember a decade ago. Or apparently even have a memory.

This wasn't the grand tournament for the title of the worst company of the year voted by the people of the USA. It was a poll on the internet. People are entitled vote for who ever they don't like the most. Stop blaming the gaming community for every single thing that happens. What people should have done instead? Voted for bank of whateverthefuck just because EA is a Video game company?

More people who didn't like EA voted I wonder why? Maybe EA's audience are more familiar with the internet than the consumers of Bank of America or Walmart. Also don't forget that, It may say "Worst Company of America" but Non-Americans are not excluded from voting.

Fiz_The_Toaster:Not trying to downplay what EA has done because they are pretty shit in their own right, but out of some of the companies listed I think they are much worse than them. Some of those companies screwed with people's livelihoods and somehow a company that makes entertainment gets the top spot.

Makes me wonder sometimes.

Just goes to show, that vidja gaems are srs bsnss :D

I'd like post something from another thread about this, I think it's a rather good point.

The reason EA crushes it in a competition like this is because people have been conditioned to expect that utilities, banks, and energy companies are just going to be evil. Malice for mankind is built right into the type of business they're in. Nobody buys a plane ticket sure that their experience is going to be rosy. Nobody takes out a loan and expects to walk out of the bank smiling, feeling like they're a valued customer. We go into those businesses expecting to be bent over, and we're usually happy if the company uses lube first.

EA, however, is supposed to be selling us products that make life happier. They're selling a product that's supposed to be a pure positive. Not only that, but they are so big that their business practices are leaking over into and influencing the rest of the video game market, an area of business that is deeply important to many people. So when a company is evil there, we expect it less, and so the betrayal hurts more.

Bank of America lost (and lost big) because everyone expects them to be assholes. They can be proud of that; that they got the #2 worst company in america because everyone expects them to suck and they didn't disappoint. But EA won by a landslide because they're not supposed to suck, but they do it anyway. Not only that, they do it with an open contempt that even banks and utilities have learned to at least try and mask. EA is so new to the "being evil" game that they're naked and obvious about it, and that's doubly insulting.

That's why they won. Because they're not supposed to be able to trade punches with BoA and Comcast and Ticketmaster, but they do it anyway, and do it well. They're the Rocky Balboa of shit companies. A well deserved win.

Yes. And as we all know, when a company goes against expectations, it makes its faults exponentially greater. Bank of America may have made thousands homeless, with a large number of mistaken foreclosures, and, along with several other large financial institutions, nearly broke the economy of the whole fucking world. But dammit we expected that. Little wonder then that one of the companies that ruined the world lost to a company that screwed up an online game and charges you money for extra content. If ever I'm given the wrong flavor of ice cream from an ice cream truck or charged more money for it than other places, I feel confident that that will henceforth be known as the new worst business in America.

Seriously, it only "trades punches" because gamers decided that a broken game they paid $60 for was the equivalent of a bank kicking someone out of a house they'd already paid for or an oil company destroying a massive ecosystem. God so much of gamer culture makes me fucking sick.

The reason EA crushes it in a competition like this is because people have been conditioned to expect that utilities, banks, and energy companies are just going to be evil. Malice for mankind is built right into the type of business they're in. Nobody buys a plane ticket sure that their experience is going to be rosy. Nobody takes out a loan and expects to walk out of the bank smiling, feeling like they're a valued customer. We go into those businesses expecting to be bent over, and we're usually happy if the company uses lube first.

I disagree with this assesment. I fly sometimes. I expect - and do - get good experience while at it. (except the turkish security folks, i found a very cool looking stone in Turkey, on a beach, the size of around 2x2CM, and they stopped and interrogated me for it because apparently i was smuggling "national cultural valuables" out of thier country, and in the end confiscated the stone.). I got a loan for my house and i walked out of bank smiling, because the costumer service was amazing, and the gal was looking out in my best interest (i study economy, i knew whats going on). So far its been 1,5 years and i have had no problems whatsoever with the loan. So no, i never go into any business expecting to be hurt, yet somehow gaming is one where i am hurt the most. Maybe i am lucky, i dont know, but personally while EA isnt the worst out there in my opinion, its no angel.

Is EA the worst company? No it isn't, but it does deserve the attention. Some have said, "Don't buy their games." Well, in the video game business there is more to it than that. I could easily say that I won't buy their games, but I loved Bioware so I bought their games. Now their owned by EA and their games suck now. Than I could say I love Insomniac games since earlier in the ps2 era. But now they are owned by EA and we now have Fused.

Unfortunately even though we wanna stay away from EA to get the games we want. EA tends to buyout the companies we like and either ruin them or close the studio.

The hatred for EA is quite deserved. It's not like they've screwed up one or two times. It's more like they've screwed up one or two decades now. They've continually bought up companies that don't fit their own portfolio or their goals and assimilating them into their own, therefore actively eliminating variety throughout their own industry.

Of course pretty much all the other companies did larger damage to the economy of the united States and the Bank of America even caused an entire recession.

Then again, what is "worse"? Do i "scale" the damages done by each company? After all, EA is much smaller, personell and moneywise so they couldn't do as much damage as the bank of America even if they tried.Would EA do as much damage to the economy of America if they where worth as much as the Bank of America? Are they that much of a shitty Company that they, if put in the BoA's shoes, deal a harder blow to the economy of the entire World?

That would make EA worse than the Bank of America. People who voted with that "scaling" in Mind might actually be onto something.

Then it comes down to which Company has the bigger Assholes.

On the other Hand, EA has the wonderful Potential to bring Peace and Serenity to the industry; There's some People that i'm sure helped vote EA through all the rounds simply because they make Videogames.Jack thompson and his ilk.

I suppose, that although yes, it is the easiest for the internet to be mad at, there are other issues at play here. For instance, the oil spill was not deliberate, and therefore can not really be a measure of how good a company is, despite the failed attempts to stem it initially. The banks' shenanigans are all a bit cloak and dagger and usually down to a few people doing things that fuck stuff up.

EA deliberately give us overpriced, half finished crap and expect us to take it. Perhaps it's the contempt they appear to have for their consumers that gives them the edge.

I can understand the hatred at EA, and the recent fiasco that was SimCity certainly didn't help their case in this vote, but we also need to realize that EA really doesn't affect those who don't play their games. If you get ripped off by EA, you're partially to blame for letting them do that to you. Sure, that doesn't justify why they pursue it in the first place, but saying they are worse than companies that have affected the lives of millions of people who didn't even use their service in the first place is taking this EA hate way too far.

Bank of America deserves a lot of blame for the recession, which affected millions of lives regardless of which bank you happen to use. Most people I know who suffered most from the recession never used Bank of America, but they were still affected by its practices in a much more serious way than their entertainment.

BP is partially to blame for their oil spill in the Gulf, essentially damaging a wonderful ecosystem. You can also imagine the economic impact that would have, and the Gulf States are still trying to convince people to come down and enjoy it regardless of what happened as a result of the spill.

EA...charges too much for mediocre entertainment that you can figure out is bad before you even buy it and doesn't affect you if you don't purchase it...Yeah, pure evil right here!